Snapshot of Aruba

The Island

Aruba's topography is unusual for a Caribbean island. The southern and western coasts consist of miles of palm-lined, white-sand beaches. The calm, blue-green waters are so clear that in some areas visibility extends to a depth of 100 feet. The northeast coast is wild and rugged; here the waves pound against the coral cliffs, creating remarkable rock formations. The desertlike interior is home to various types of cacti and still more extraordinary rock formations. Divi-divi trees flourish everywhere.

Poking out of the Caribbean Sea, Aruba is at latitude 12°30' north and longitude 70° west. The island lies about 32 km (20 mi) from Venezuela's northern coast, near the Península Paraguaná. Aruba is only 32 km (20 mi) long and 10 km (6 mi) across at its widest point, with a total area of 180 square km (70 square mi).

In the east, Arikok National Park makes up 18% of the island's total area. Here you can visit 617-foot Mt. Yamanota, Aruba's highest peak. The island's capital, Oranjestad, is on the southwest coast, and Dutch and Spanish influences are evident in the colorful houses along Wilhelminastraat.

Two main thoroughfares—J.E. Irausquin and L.G. Smith boulevards—link the capital to the hotels along Eagle and Palm beaches.

To the southeast lies San Nicolas, the island's second-largest metropolis and the site of an oil refinery. At Aruba's northwestern tip are large rolling sand dunes. Nestled at the island's heart, Santa Cruz is the cradle of religious culture, symbolized by a large cross marking the spot where Spanish missionaries introduced Christianity.

The People

Archaeological and genetic research indicates that the first inhabitants of Aruba, the Caquetio people, migrated to the island as early as 2500 BC. These hunter-gatherers, who most likely arrived from the nearby Venezuelan coast, had no knowledge of agriculture or pottery making. They seem to have settled in Aruba until about AD 1000, when another group of Caquetio people (often misspelled as Caiquetio) arrived from northwest Venezuela. This group brought with them pottery-making skills (this time is usually referred to as the Ceramic Period) and some agricultural knowledge. They spoke an Arawakan language (also called Caquetio), and DNA evidence suggests that they were closely related to Aruba's original tribal occupants. Signs of these early people can be found all over Aruba, including at the Tanki Flip archaeological site, and pottery and burial evidence suggests that they had a rich and well-developed culture. This ended abruptly and sadly with the arrival of the Europeans.

The date when the first Europeans set foot on Aruba is unclear. Around 1499, Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda (a lieutenant under Christopher Columbus) explored nearby Bonaire and Curaçao, but did not mention a third island. A map created in 1502 omits Aruba, but clearly illustrates its neighbors. Aruba was first mentioned in 1505. According to oral history, an Arawak chieftain guided the first Spanish explorers inland, where they erected a cross to mark the occasion. (In 1968 this event was commemorated by the placement of a large wooden cross atop a rocky hill in Santa Cruz.) The Spanish settlers endeavored to bring Christianity to the local population, and even brought in a Christian cacique (native chief) from the mainland to assist them in their efforts.

Due to their lack of gold or other useful resources, the Spanish referred to Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao as "Islas Inutiles" or "useless islands." In 1513 the Spanish exported most of Aruba's native population to nearby Hispaniola (today's Dominican Republic and Haiti) to work in silver mines there. Some of the native people were brought back to the island in 1527, and others escaped to the South American mainland.

In 1636, during the Eighty Years' War between Holland and Spain, the Dutch took control of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao, ruling them under the charter of the Dutch West India Company. Over the next 100 years commerce grew on the island, which served as a satellite to the administrative center on larger Curaçao.

Owing to the arid climate and poor soil, Aruba was spared from plantation economics and the slave trade; instead, the Dutch used the remaining Caquetio people to herd cattle. The Dutch held power until 1805, when the English laid claim to Aruba briefly during the Napoleonic Wars. The Dutch Republic on the European continent fell to the French in 1795, and France annexed the Netherlands in 1810. But after Napoléon's defeat in 1815 political lines throughout Europe were redrawn. The Kingdom of the Netherlands was born, and in 1816 possession of Aruba was returned permanently to the Dutch.

In 1750 Domingo Antonio Silvestre—a Venezuelan who had been converted to Catholicism by Spanish missionaries—built a small chapel at Alto Vista on the island's north shore to accommodate the Catholic community, which until that time had had no formal place of worship. The winding approach road is lined with 12 white crosses indicating the stations of the cross, which pilgrims can follow to the tranquil chapel. The church of Santa Ana, built in the district of Noord in 1776, is renowned for its handsomely carved oak altar, which was awarded a prize for neo-Gothic design at the Rome exhibition of 1870. Interestingly, the original 200-year-old Spanish cross from the Alto Vista chapel now resides here as well.

The first Protestant church was built in 1848 in the center of Oranjestad. Today the original building houses a museum that is maintained by the congregation; an adjoining larger church is used for weekly services. Another landmark house of worship, the Immaculada Concepción church in Santa Cruz, is noted for the colorful biblical mural decorating its nave. The Beth Israel synagogue was built in 1962 to meet the needs of the growing Jewish community. (A congregation began forming as early as the 1920s, when an international workforce was drawn to Aruba to staff the oil refinery.)

With a history full of cultures clashing and melding, it's no surprise that most islanders are fluent in several languages. School lessons are taught in Dutch, the official language. Arubans begin studying English, recognized as the international tongue, in the fourth grade. Spanish, essential because of Aruba's proximity to South America, is taught in school as early as the fifth grade, and French is offered as an option in high school. In normal conversation, however, the locals speak Papiamento—a mix of Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, English, and French, as well as Indian and African languages. Since 1998 Papiamento has also been taught in grade school.

The Economy

Due to its dry climate and poor soil, Aruba was basically unused by the colonists until the Dutch introduced horses and cattle. They enlisted the locals as herders, and Aruba was a convenient livestock and meat depot for many years. As more colonists arrived from Curaçao and Brazil in the 1700s, the economy began a lazy evolution. Then in the 19th century Aruba's cycle of boom and bust began with the discovery of gold in Rooi Fluit in 1824. The ensuing rush helped breathe new life into the sleepy island.

The gold industry exploded and the population swelled as immigrants flowed in from neighboring islands and the mainland. Aruba soon became an important supplier of gold, and by 1916—when supplies were depleted—close to 3 million pounds of gold had been extracted. The remnants of the gold industry can still be seen at the gold-smelter ruins in Bushiri. During the time of the gold rush, the island also became a major supplier of aloe vera, divi-divi pods (used for tanning leather), and calcium phosphate. These industries, however, were not able to support the economy after the gold industry closed, and the island fell into another slump.

Aruba ended this economic downturn by opening an oil refinery. Though the island has no oil resources of its own, it's well positioned to be a processing and shipment point for oil from Venezuela. In 1926 workers began blasting away the reef on the southern coast near San Nicholas, and the harbor was dredged to allow large ships to enter. Then in 1928 the Royal Dutch Shell Company opened the Eagle Oil Refinery. Oil was shipped into Aruba from Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela by the Lago Transportation Company of Canada (which eventually opened its own refinery on the island). By 1929 the new refinery was producing more than 200,000 barrels a day. Huge numbers of migrant workers arrived to satisfy the demands for labor, which helped fuel a population boom and added to an increasingly cosmopolitan society. At its height, the oil industry employed more than 8,000 workers—about 16% of the island's population.

The importance of Aruba's oil refining was made obvious during World War II. Aruba, Curaçao, and the nearby British island of Trinidad were key Allied supply depots in the Caribbean, and German U-boats were sent to close them down. In 1942 the harbor and the Lago refinery at San Nicholas were bombed. Two tankers were hit by torpedoes, but an accident aboard the German U-156 disabled its deck guns, and the refinery was spared. There is no doubt that Hitler, at the time, viewed the destruction of Aruba's oil production as a key strategy for winning the war. The oil industry continued to grow despite the threats of attack, reaching a peak production of 550,000 barrels a day in 1965.

Because of an unstable oil market, the refinery was closed in 1985. The Coastal Corporation of Texas reopened it in 1991 (and it now produces 150,000 barrels a day), but the tourist trade has replaced oil as Aruba's primary source of income. Education, health care, and other public services are financed by tourism, which has also helped to keep the unemployment rate at less than 1%. Because of this, it's no surprise that guests are warmly received. This warmth has, in turn, contributed to a general upward trend in the number of visitors—from 206,750 in 1985 to more than 800,000 in 2004.

The Government

Until late 1985 Aruba was a member of the Netherlands Antilles, along with Bonaire, Curaçao, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius, and Saba. On January 1, 1986, Aruba was granted a new status as an independent entity within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which now consists of the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, and Aruba.

The island has a royally appointed governor, who acts as the Dutch sovereign's representative for a six-year term. Executive power is held by the seven-member council of ministers, appointed by the legislative council for four-year terms and presided over by the prime minister, who is elected every four years. The legislature consists of a parliament whose 21 members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. Legal jurisdiction lies with the Common Court of Justice of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles as well as the Supreme Court of Justice at The Hague in the Netherlands. Defense and foreign affairs still fall under the realm of the kingdom, whereas internal matters involving such things as customs, immigration, aviation, and communications are handled autonomously.

The Language

Papiamento is a hybrid language born out of the colorful past of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. The language's use is generally thought to have started in the 17th century when Sephardic Jews migrated with their African slaves from Brazil to Curaçao. The slaves spoke a pidgin Portuguese, which may have been blended with pure Portuguese, some Dutch (the colonial power in charge of the island), and Arawakan. Proximity to the mainland meant that Spanish and English words were also incorporated.

Papiamento is roughly translated as "the way of speaking." (Sometimes the suffix -mentu is spelled in the Spanish and Portuguese way [-mento], creating the variant spelling.) It began as an oral tradition, handed down through the generations and spoken by all social classes on the islands. There's no uniform spelling or grammar from island to island, or even from one neighborhood to another. However, it is also beginning to receive some official recognition. A noteworthy measure of the increased government respect for the language is that anyone applying for citizenship must be fluent in both Papiamento and Dutch.